Beagle Marine Park Seabed Backscatter Grids at 1 Meter Resolution

11 backscatter grids cover 364 km² of seabed in Beagle Marine Park. The data was collected by Geoscience Australia and the University of Tasmania in June 2018 using multibeam sonar. It provides baseline information for benthic habitats to support a 10-year environmental monitoring plan.

Use Cases

• Map seabed sediment types based on backscatter intensity values.
• Model benthic habitat distribution for marine park management.
• Establish baseline environmental conditions for long-term monitoring.
• Integrate with seabed imagery and sediment sampling data from subsequent survey phases.

Strengths

• High-resolution (1 meter) gridded data.
• Coverage of 364 square kilometers.
• Data collection funded and executed by authoritative national institutions.
• Part of a multi-phase survey providing complementary datasets.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data freshness should be verified; last metadata update was 2026-04-16.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia and the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies (University of Tasmania)

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar data acquisition during a dedicated survey voyage.

Time Range

17 – 26 June 2018

Geography

Beagle Marine Park, Bass Strait, Australia